


Head on the Pike

by xXQueenofDragonsXx



Series: Carl Grimes What-if's [3]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Angst, But Enid Doesn't, Carl Grimes Lives, Carl Grimes Needs a Hug, Essentially it's the pike scene if Carl was still alive, F/M, Heavy Angst, POV Carl Grimes, Sad Carl Grimes, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:08:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27813562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXQueenofDragonsXx/pseuds/xXQueenofDragonsXx
Summary: Carl doesn't get bit, but Enid still ends up on the pikes...
Relationships: Enid/Carl Grimes
Series: Carl Grimes What-if's [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2051814
Comments: 9
Kudos: 21





	Head on the Pike

"Siddiq?" Michonne gasps out, and Carl's gaze is drawn to the lone figure passed out against a tree trunk a little ways away. Carl's eyes widen, and he rushes forward, collapsing to his knees in front of Siddiq, Michonne following in suit seconds later. 

Carl starts shaking Siddiq by the shoulders, praying that his friend is awake -- that he's not as dead as he currently looks. His friend lets out a low groan of pain, eyes blinking open. Carl nearly sobs in relief, leaning back on his knees and opening his mouth, prepared to make some sort of remark at how shitty Siddiq currently looks when the man begins to speak.

"Ca...carl...?" Siddiq gasps out, lifting his head up and taking in a ragged breath as he struggles to sit up. "Mich...michonne?" Carl gives his friend a strained smile, looking over his battered appearance. He's covered nearly head to toe in dirt, and blood is dripping down his head, but otherwise he seems okay. Carl takes that as a win. 

"What happened to you, man?" Carl mutters, reaching out and brushing the hair out of Siddiq's eyes. The man suddenly grew panicked, hands grasping at Carl's shoulders and shaking him weakly but urgently. 

"-they... they were at... at the f-fair." He hears Daryl take in a sharp intake of breath, and Carl feels his blood run ice cold in his veins. He looks back, exchanging glances with Michonne, both of them knowing very well who 'they' happened to be. Carl's mind drifted back to the night before, back when they had been surrounded by the skin wearing fuckers. He remembers how terrifying they had seemed, and if they did this to Siddiq...

Carl realizes that Michonne had said something while he had been lost in his thoughts, but whatever it is causes Siddiq to shake his head, shakily lifting an arm and pointing behind him, up to a small hill. Carl, along with the rest, glances up in the direction Siddiq is gesturing to, and through the thick bushes and trees, Carl can see the beginning of a clearing. Frowning, Carl turns back to Siddiq, grabbing the man by the shoulders and pulling him up, slowly helping the other man climb to his feet. After a quick second, Michonne grabs one of Siddiq's arms, looping it over her shoulders as Yumiko quickly does the same with the other one, nodding to Carl as the small group begins to walk -- making their way up the hill and into the clearing.

At first, Carl isn't entirely sure what he's even supposed to be looking at. The rest of the group appear just about the same way and so remain extremely cautious as they step out into the open. They continue walking, and as they do, ten motionless shapes slowly come into view. Carl, confused, furrows his brow and squints, trying to make out the shapes as a sense of foreboding starts to form in his gut. 

There are ten stakes embedded into the ground, only a couple of feet away from each other. After a moment, Carl realizes this is Alpha's supposed border. The one that Daryl had told them about when he had come back from Alpha showing him her herd. Carl lets his gaze drift up, his heart freezing when he sees the top of each of the pikes. 

Because, even through the early morning darkness, he can see the shadowy figures of ten heads stabbed onto each of the pikes. 

The first thought that goes through his head is -- maybe Alpha used walkers to claim her borders? That wouldn't be entirely impossible, but the gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach makes him think otherwise. He stumbles forward along with the rest of the group, all of them slowly becoming more and more anxious as they draw closer to the heads on the pikes. 

Carl gasps when he finally realizes who has their heads on the pikes. These aren't just random walkers as he had hoped -- these are people, people he knows. He sees two teenagers from Hilltop, a couple of the highway men that the Kingdom brought over, he sees Frankie, Tammy, _Tara,_ Henry, and-

And-

The world seems to freeze in place when Carl's gaze lands on Enid's decapitated head protruding from a pike in the ground. Her teeth are clicking together, a faint groan escaping her now dead lips. She's nothing more than a shell now, yet another walking corpse filled with only the desire to consume any living thing she sets her sights on. 

Carl can only stare.

Her dark, shoulder-length brown hair blew softly in the chilling breeze of the early morning, and Carl can see strands of it stained with blood -- her blood, he realizes numbly. Her once vibrant green eyes that Carl often found himself lost in are now dull and lifeless, having changed into a dark, murky golden color in the time she'd been dead. 

Dead...

Enid was-

She's-

In the distance, he registers the sound of a soft sob coming from somewhere behind him, but Carl can hardly give a damn. All of his attention is focused on the pike with his wife's head on it. He stares at it unblinkingly, his legs failing beneath him as he falls to his knees. He feels a hand on his shoulder, hears someone -- Michonne maybe -- talking to him. But he can't hear a word of it.

_She's gone-_

Enid's dead. 

He's never going to see her again. He's never going to hear her voice or her laugh again, never going to feel her lips against his or see her eyes twinkling with love and laughter. He's never going to hold her close, never going to see the fond way she would roll her eyes whenever he said or did something stupid, he would never-

"Carl..." Michonne whispers softly -- he doesn't hear her. She kneels down beside him, gently cupping his face within her hands and forcing him to look at her. She removes one of her hands, wiping away the tears that had started streaming down his face. "Carl, honey, don't look at her. Look at me, okay?"

_He sees the blood dripping down from her neck, the red liquid slowly trailing down the pike and down into the grass._

He wonders if she had been in any pain.

He prays that she hadn't.

"I-" his throat closes up, and he chokes on a sob. "Enid, she-" Michonne pulls Carl into her arms, resting a hand on his head and strokes his hair soothingly. He melts into her without a second thought, another choked sob escaping from his lips. It's like a dam had broken, and his body begins to shake as tears start streaming down his face at a rapid rate. 

"I know, Carl," Michonne whispers hoarsely, resting her chin on his head. Briefly, he remembers doing this exact same thing when his dad died in that bridge explosion six years before. He remembers screaming himself hoarse after witnessing that explosion, and he remembers Michonne taking him into her arms, sobs shaking her own body too. And now, they were doing the same exact thing. Only it was Carl who had lost his lover this time.

He clings to her, buries his head in the crook of her neck, and he _cries._

**Author's Note:**

> I made myself cry with this


End file.
